Major League (1989)

The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they'll lose and she can move the team. But when the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her.

Director:

David S. Ward (as David Ward)

Writer:

David S. Ward (as David Ward)

Stars:

Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Berenger	...	Jake Taylor
Charlie Sheen	...	Ricky Vaughn
Corbin Bernsen	...	Roger Dorn
Margaret Whitton	...	Rachel Phelps
James Gammon	...	Lou Brown
Rene Russo	...	Lynn Wells
Wesley Snipes	...	Willie Mays Hayes
Charles Cyphers	...	Charlie Donovan
Chelcie Ross	...	Eddie Harris
Dennis Haysbert	...	Pedro Cerrano
Andy Romano	...	Pepper Leach
Bob Uecker	...	Harry Doyle
Steve Yeager	...	Duke Temple
Peter Vuckovich	...	Haywood
Stacy Carroll	...	Suzanne Dorn

Storyline

Rachel Phelps is the new owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. However, her plans for the team are rather nefarious. She wants to move the team to Miami for the warmer climate and a new stadium. To justify the move, the team has to lose, and lose badly. So she assembles the worst possible team she can. Among these are a past-his-prime catcher with bad knees, a shrewd but past-his-prime pitcher, a young tearaway pitcher (and felon) with a 100 mph fastball but absolutely no control, a third baseman who is too wealthy and precious to dive, a voodoo-loving slugger who can't hit a curve ball and an energetic-but-naive lead off hitter and base-stealer who can't keep the ball on the ground. Against the odds, and after the inevitable initial failures, they iron out some of their faults and start to win, much to Ms Phelps' consternation.

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Plot Keywords:

cutout | eccentricity | homerun | dog | whiskey | 

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Taglines:

A comedy with bats and balls.

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Genres:

Comedy | Sport

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish Japanese

Release Date:

7 April 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Major League

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,836,265, 9 April 1989

Gross USA:

$49,797,148

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mirage Enterprises, Morgan Creek Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The home game scenes were filmed at Milwaukee's County Stadium, which has since been torn down, where Bob Uecker, who portrays announcer Harry Doyle, called games for the Brewers and played for the old Milwaukee Braves. The exterior stadium shots use Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, which has since been torn down.

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Goofs

The stadium that the Cleveland Indians play their home games in throughout the movie is actually the old Milwaukee County Stadium, former home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Some billboards/ads in the stadium were not removed, like advertisements for area radio stations 94 WKTI and 620 WTMJ.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rachel Phelps: Good morning, gentlemen, and welcome to another season of Indians baseball.

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Alternate Versions

In the spring training scene in which Dorn challenges his prescribed calisthenics, an edited-for-television version of the film has Lou Brown blowing his nose in Dorn's contract rather than urinating on it.

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Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.11 (2011)

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Soundtracks

Beyond the Blue Horizon
by Leo Robin, Richard A. Whiting & W. Franke Harling

User Reviews

"Juuust a bit outside."

Let me preface this by saying I can't stand baseball; I find it to be one of the most boring sports out there. With that said, I love this film. It has a great "underdog" story, some genuine comedy, great characters, and heart. It's a minor film, but it's thoroughly entertaining. If more films could just be entertaining, I might go to the theater more often.

The heart of this film is the characters. We have the broken down veterans, the rookies, the love interest, the wise old coach, and the villain. These are rather cliched characters, but they are written and performed so well, you don't notice. Much of the humor arises out of character moments, which keeps it from becoming tired or dated.

Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen were hot, coming off of the success of Platoon. Corbin Bernsen was enjoying fame on LA Law. Rene Russo and Wesley Snipes were relative unknowns who got a chance to shine. And then there's Bob Uecker! Uecker is the glue that brings everything together and he gets the best lines in the movie.

You can't go wrong with a film like this. Everything works well and a good time is had by all. Too bad the sequels forgot what made this a success.